Business. How not to

Some time ago I published here an article about how it should and should not be monitored. And literally after this, fermentation in our company reached its peak and forced me to search for a new job.
In the meantime, I will tell you the story of the rotting of one startup and an example of how you should never treat employees, the business process and business in general.

I am not a supporter of throwing mud at anyone, especially of my employer, but this case is an exception — an adequate response to the attitude towards employees.

Summer

For me, it all started a little over a year ago. I am still a green former technical support engineer who got a job related to the leading edge of modern mass technologies - WiMAX, as you could understand from my previous articles. Work in a good team, amazing prospects, satisfied ambitions - that’s what promised the beginning, especially since the company is very young and it’s very nice to be at its origins.
What was: a professional team, headed by a wise tech. director, good relations with other operators (rental of premises, places on the towers, transport on more favorable terms), the first frequencies in this range for WiMAX are received by us, competition in the face of barely developed 3G and another pair of wireless operators who are not shaky, not shaky. What else is needed for a great startup? That's right: the means. And they were.
What was it for me personally? Higher salary than the previous place, the opportunity to learn and develop, expanding the circle of communication, gaining invaluable experience. Perfectly! It all started well.

There were negative prerequisites:
1) Practically chaotic choice of locations for base stations, which led to the fact that coverage was provided in those places where there is already more than one wired operator. Although it is logical to assume that it is reasonable for a small company to start building a network from the outskirts and territories not covered by cable networks.
2) Unreasoned transport network: the feeling is that they sat around the round table at the IIC and simply decided that everything would be connected by the RRL network in terms of the “ring” topology, not paying attention to the lack of direct visibility.
3) Purchase of partly unnecessary equipment, which is still in stock.
4) Renting an office in a very disadvantageous place (lack of alternative providers, high rent, distance from all other network objects)
But we all turned a blind eye to this, as to the costs of the company's youth and the inexperience of managers. Those. the director, of course, tried to influence this, but his arguments had no effect.
The first seven months, everything went properly with a bit of Moscow tyranny, but no serious problems. Installation, commissioning, integration, testing. One of the first WiMAX Huawei projects in Russia. By the way, not Huawei taught us for the most part, but we did it, because we sent inexperienced engineers.

Autumn

And here are the first messengers of trouble: first, the “fictitious” launch of the network is a dust in the eyes of investors. Before the real start of sales is not less than a month. Then the connection plan rolled out by Moscow, which in our city is even very good for wireline operators. And, given the fragmentary coverage on the already unprofitable territory, it is generally not feasible.
Further, the selection of the director of the commercial department went behind our back (at that moment the technical director acted as the director of the branch and should have been aware of what was happening, but he was not). As a result, we were confronted with the fact that now we have the “chief gardener” of a former military man (in this case, this is similar to “an engineer with thirty years of experience”).
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This person brought a lot of new things to the company and is worthy of a separate paragraph. Initially, he behaved very strange - he tried to pass off familiarity and familiarity as courtesy. He came up and could stroke engineers on the head (!), Ask some stupid or personal question. From the very beginning, he began to climb into all things (including personal) with the most ambitious proposals. The first time I even listened to him. I listened until it turned out that all this was only in words, in reality for half a year of his work nothing was done! But in the company they were brought to the gopaty kind of bydlo-sneaky-head of the commercial department, who considers clients to be something of a lower layer, a battered kind of old man, an ex-IT person for the position of legal manager, his girlfriend, as a part-time marketer ( the woman has never even appeared at work, as evidenced by the almost complete absence of advertising). His initial "tenderness" later easily explained - an attempt to gain confidence. Later, he tried to call us to bypass the direct bosses with orders to do non-core work. And in general, I noticed the former military (of whom we have two in number) that they confuse life and the army: “Well, what? Our fighters will not be able to continue the wall? " They also like to start a conversation, even the most serious, with a common phrase: “like the weather”, “like little things”, for example.

Further more. Run The network has been successfully tested - several test subscribers are already using communication services. By this time, apart from the plan for the number of connections, nothing had been worked out: neither the tariff scale, nor the mechanism and procedure for connecting subscribers, nor even an agreement with subscribers. A few weeks later, with the assistance of external forces, idiotic tariffs were worked out (selling traffic is cheaper than buying it). Connections after that appeared (they did not flow, but they did). As a result, after 2 months, the channels were clogged, because at 2 Mb / s, about 10 people were connected to the BS with a rate of 1 Mb / s and a few at 2. Soon, the channel was loaded to the Internet. All this is not due to our whim or laziness, but by the greed of the company's policy. And at the same time, since the purchase of equipment in the warehouse, more than a dozen radio-relay modules have been collecting dust, on which at least some spans could be built - there is a benefit and an opportunity, but again they don’t give “there”. Accordingly, mass customer complaints began. Due to the actual lack of technical support, engineers had to take the rap, i.e. us.
After the first and only increase in sn (~ 15%), delays began. First for a week, then they began to reach almost a month. We did not see any bonus for launching, and on our shoulders, in order to save, everything lay: installation of servers, installation of the central hub, SCS, emergency lighting - this is not counting direct duties.
During this time, several general directors, technical directors, directors, personnel and others have changed in the MSK. And each time it gets worse and worse. Whether they sensed that there was nothing to catch, or there were some other reasons. Now, at the post of general, some security officer, for whom what is in the closet of the staff, is more important than problems with the network.

Having an undeveloped network in the same city with a crap cover and a bunch of problems, Moscow decides to expand and build a macro-region. Instead of improving the situation here, all the forces (ours) rush to construction in other cities - a period of 3 months. Thanks to the agility and responsibility of our tech. directors, in the shortest possible time (in 3 months, given the expectation of equipment and contractual activities, of course, this does not fit) the task comes to the middle stage - a lot of people are already worried, rapid construction, the purchased equipment is in stock and ... Nothing. Firstly, for 2 months the contractors were not paid money, and, secondly: “we thought so, the network of 7 BS will not bring any profit. We are curtailing construction in the cities and directing all our efforts to expand the network here. Scheduling begins. Weekend scheduled departure for dismantling (yes, too, partly by our forces). And on Friday everything is already canceled. No comments in general.

It was decided to develop a network in this city.
And it is not known to them that the amounts comparable to the cost of completion will now be spent on dismantling and transportation, that expanding the network in this city will require serious investments and planning. But what kind of planning are we talking about when transport, location, expediency, and payment system are not thought out? There is a feeling that people do not know how to handle money, at least with other people's money, or they tend to fill their pockets while there is an opportunity. In the second case, they have nothing to worry about, that they are losing valuable personnel, they are in any case in gaining - you only need to push responsibility onto someone in time.

Winter

The last straw was a decrease in sn.

“... a new wage system will be introduced, aimed at improving the efficiency of each employee ... After the introduction of a new wage system, your monthly salary (total monthly income) will not change, but will consist of two equal parts: the salary in the amount of x rubles and monthly bonus of 100% salary ".

This was done on February 12 in the form of a notice - accordingly, it is not subject to discussion. According to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, a document can enter into force only after two months. And during this time they have to pay everything as before. But today we are being offered “by mutual desire to conclude a new labor contract” from 03/01/2010 and swear solemnly that the sn will not be reduced - this is, they say, a mere formality. After all that I saw in this company (and I described far from everything - the rest should not be made public), I don’t want to believe them and continue working for and without any reduction. Neither my colleagues nor I will sign the new document. And this, I believe, is correct. Such things can not be lowered, otherwise it will become the norm.
Remember: the salary of employees is sacred and it cannot be reduced, if there are no valid reasons for this.
Now most of us will leave (or all) - experienced engineers and managers who have been trained. I smoothly pick up my tails - unfinished works, collect everything that may come in handy in the future. How much will they now spend on finding new specialists, on their training? What happens if we all go to the labor inspectorate? Apparently they don’t think about it and believe that idiots live outside Moscow who will endure everything. I'm not talking about the reputation of the company.

<And a few more common words. First, I guess what this will lead to, if someone from our “top” is reached by this article, but you cannot put up with it - at least in this way negligent managers should be punished. Secondly, those who will say “Oh! Again snot on Habré! Stop complaining already! ” How many times have I come across the fact that someone, pouring out his righteous anger, receives in return such spitting. This is not about how unlucky I am - I will find my place - but about the company. On Habré is not one thousand smart people, and each of them has 10-20 friends and acquaintances. And they all learn that company A is a scam, and B is deceiving customers and will be punished with a ruble. One sentence: we form public opinion. Thank you all>